Cher

tomas-malik-9XQzqcAr-3I-unsplash — Cher is in here somewhere. Image Credit: Tomáš Malík

GENERAL

Name: Cher
Gender: Female
Age:31
Race: ~~Human~~
Height: 5’9
Weight: Measurement not possible at this time
Sexuality: Homosexual
Occupation: Inquisitor Enforcer, Commissariat Special Bureau, Section 13
Freysian Sect: No specific affiliation
General Location: Athefast, Augustine Headquarters

PERSONALITY

Desires: Loyalty. Otherwise nothing in particular.
Dislikes: Small talk. The idea her kill count might one day be used as propaganda.
Likes: A humble sandwich from a village outside Saline. (she doesn’t elaborate further, but the wet topping is ‘as good as gravy’ according to sources.)
Hobbies: Fishing, smoking.

APPEARANCE

If you can see her up close and out of combat, Cher can be considered conventionally attractive, though she is also remarkably plain. Her dark hair is just past her shoulders, and her eyes are equally dark and fathomless in colour, appearing at most umber brown in bright light. Her body is deceptively athletic and muscular, though most of her regular clothing hides her physique, dressing in the guise of a nun. When off duty, her preferred taste in clothing is also dark, drab, and uninspired. Both of Cher’s ears feature extensive disfiguration around the helix, the cartilage heavily scarred and sewn haphazardly. This is often hidden by a wimple and nun’s habit.

GENERAL ATTITUDE

Cher is a person of few words. Even to people she is close with, she never truly opens up and maintains distance. She regards relationships as fleeting and impermanent—even if this contradicts with the reality she has with the long-term bonds she has. Despite this world view, she maintains a thinly-veiled performance when times call for it, or when showing her true face would be inconvenient. Even then, her appearances within society are rare and infrequent—Cher thinks of society at large as a place where she does not belong, and her social aptitude suffers for it.

She delights in little else save for smoking and fishing, and even then, it’s contentious if she enjoys it or if it’s merely habit or pretence. Extreme violence neither repulses or excites her, preferring brutal efficiency. What she does believe in is the mission, and nothing else. That is what she can believe in with all certainty.

CW: mutilation, suicidal ideation

HISTORY

Cher had made a pact to herself: that in twenty years, she would take her own life before anyone suspected she was not human.

A girl was found beaten, bruised, and discarded on the outskirts of Saline, the cartilage of her ears exposed and bloodied, the slightly gummy white quality of cartilage peeking through the blood that ran into the grooves of her ears. It was like someone had taken a pair of scissors and just began to cut through her flesh like paper. She must have been no older than eight or nine.

Cher doesn’t remember this. The memories were scrubbed clean, whether of her own doing or someone else’s. But every morning, before she gets dressed, she sees the harm she suffered and intuitively understood why it happened.

At first, respite and sanctuary were given to the girl as remedy. They thought she needed light and love. But it turned out the damage she suffered to her psyche was irreparable. The girl’s mind was too far gone, nor did she seem to take interest in forming friendships with other girls in the orphanage, preferring violence. She might have held a flower for a name—Cerise, perhaps. Or was it Chère Lili?

She remembered ‘chère’. That was what her mentor called her. She was transferred to a convent in a coastal village outside Saline. A woman without a right hand became her guardian—chewed clean off by a demi-human. She was a former sniper and inquisitor enforcer, passing on techniques to a new generation of killers—all broken little girls like herself; blood sisters. There, she would learn how to stay silent, to learn the intricacies of assassination.

Staring down the sight of her arquebus, until the distal and proximal axis were perfectly aligned to eliminate her target off the map—this is what Cher remembers and recalls best. That was all Cher had to do to survive.

Her graduation was to defeat her mentor, sniper to sniper. It was proof she was the favourite of all her students.

Inquisitor enforcers see terrific amounts of brutality, though Section 13 in particular, known to only to those with high enough clearance as “the Department of Wet Affairs”, executes with impunity. Operations within Section 13 are covert, and are partially hidden from the Commission’s own scrutiny and are provided a black budget. Their operations known only to the Pontiff, Chief Inspector, and only certain members of the Board of Saints above rank X.

Cher’s beginnings was as a fresh recruit, straight into the maws known as ‘the Cresti Uprising’. It didn’t matter who the targets were. If they had families to return to; if they had reasons for living; if they believed in a tomorrow. Cher saw all of this from the sight of her arquebus, and pulled the trigger without hesitation. Beside her was Tethys, another from the blood convent, who acted as her spotter and support over their long missions.

For the next eleven years, they worked as a team. Their targets were bishops with ‘inconvenient’ ideologies, then deserters and insubordinate officers that even showed a vague sign to mutiny as wartime pressures continued. Cher tracks every kill, hoping to surpass her mentor’s own numbers before her intended date of death.

ABILITY INFORMATION

Marksmanship

Cher is a peerless sharpshooter. A standard issue arquebus transforms into a deadly weapon in her hands, and she knows the ins-and-outs and technicalities of what could affect her shot: wind speed, wind direction, range, target movement, barometric pressure, heat, humidity, deviation, and more. Though she can use other flintlock and wheel-lock guns, her choice and speciality remains sniping.

Take Someone Out

Cher’s style of combat involves ambush, surprise attacks, and taking advantage of masking her presence, though she can be deadly even in a fistfight. She can disable or kill someone quietly and efficiently. Somehow, it’s baffling that this isn’t her preferred speciality with how easily she could incapacitate someone, but this tends to be a last resort for Cher.

Superior Senses: Eyesight

Cher’s eyesight is phenomenal. She can see in darkness and poor conditions, such as fog, smoke, rain, or snow, so long as there is at least one light source. She can spot small details unaided that would be beyond human ken. Estimates for how far she can see are up to a mile unaided, though she would never disclose this.

Superior Senses: Hearing

Her hearing is exceptionally good when measured against human ability, though if it was measured against another elf, she would fall short in terms of directional hearing, due to the mutilation of her ears. She has an incredible sense of balance, perhaps due to the structure of her inner ear and vestibular system.

Unheard and Unseen

Part a skill and part natural ability, Cher’s footfalls are nigh undetectable, and she can seemingly disappear in natural surroundings, particularly if there is rain, snow, mist, or foliage to provide cover. When travelling through even deep snow, she’s surprisingly light-footed when traversing difficult terrain. She’s also a master of infiltration, moving silently and invisibly.

Weapon: HR Longbore Arquebus “Grisaille”

A standard-issue arquebus from High Roller, Grisaille’s name comes from both the technique used in enamel and stained glass for monochrome painting, but also its grey colour of the main barrel. It is match-grade and fine-tuned by a professional gunsmith. Cher has adapted it for use in sniping via an iron sight. She prefers it over a scope, which tends to cloud in cold conditions or give away position too readily.